Samsung plans a free phone upgrade with a life-saving new feature

SAMSUNG is looking to launch a potentially life-saving new feature that will bring its devices on par with Apple's iPhones.

It's a feature that everyone hopes they'll never have to use because it's for emergencies only.

According to a report from AndroidPolice, Samsung is looking to roll out car crash detection to select devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the new Galaxy S24.

The feature has been around on iPhones since 2022 and was introduced on Google Pixel phones earlier in 2019.

By analyzing data from the motion sensors, GPS and microphone, a phone can tell when it has been in a car that has been in a collision.

It is designed to contact emergency services and quickly inform loved ones if the phone owner is unable to do so.

Can the feature really save lives?

Do you want the short answer? Yes.

In July last year, a California resident survived a 400-foot plunge into a canyon thanks to the crash detection feature of the man's iPhone 14, which alerted authorities.

The LA County Sheriff's Department told ABC News at the time that a distress signal was received from the device around 11 p.m.

The iPhone provided authorities with precise location data, allowing the Sheriff's Department to launch a search and rescue team for the man.

The man was found bleeding and trapped in the wreckage of his vehicle about 400 feet below the road.

Search and rescue team leader Mike Leum told reporters that it was a near miss and that without the help of the iPhone, the man's chances of survival were slim.

“The majority of the calls we get there about the parties are usually fatal,” he said.

“I believe that if we had not had that good location information in time, he probably would have bled to death.”

Samsung has not yet officially announced that it is working on the feature.

But Android Police's Mishaal Rahman, who has a strong track record with Android leaks, discovered a hidden 'Car Crash Detect Wakeup' feature deep within his Samsung Z Fold 5.

“I was messing around with the Tasker app on my Galaxy Z Fold 5 to fix an issue I was having,” he writes.

“To my surprise, when the Tasker app listed all the available sensors on my Galaxy Z Fold 5, I found a 'Car Crash Detect Wakeup' sensor in the list.

“This was a shocking discovery as Samsung does not currently offer a car crash detection feature on any of its Galaxy phones.”

The crash detection sensor was also present on Rahman's Galaxy S24 Ultra, but not on a Galaxy S23 Ultra device.

“By digging deeper, I discovered that this 'Car Crash Detect Wakeup' sensor is actually a composite sensor, a type of virtual sensor that processes and merges data from one or more underlying physical sensors,” Rahman continues.

“The sensor is designed to allow no batching of sensor events, so potential car accidents are immediately reported to apps that read the sensor.”

The Sun has contacted Samsung for comment.